Another bridge hit, another freeway closed

Last week, after inspectors discovered severe damage to a bridge that carries rail cars over the US-23 freeway near Milan, Michigan, engineers made the difficult decision to close the road and pursue emergency repairs. The damage came to light upon a more in-depth inspection of the bridge that revealed severe structural damage from a high-load hit involving a truck traveling underneath in late August. 

As Pew Trust research underscored in 2019, “so-called bridge strikes occur all over the country when trucks or their loads are too tall to pass under highway bridges and overpasses. They damage valuable infrastructure, create epic traffic jams and can be hazardous for other drivers who may be pelted with fallen debris or forced to swerve into another car.” 

Matt Chynoweth, chief bridge engineer for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), joins the podcast to explain the sequence of events and why the busy freeway needed to be closed. He also talks about the bridge engineers’ efforts to move quickly on emergency repairs, acknowledging the inconvenience to commuters who rely on the freeway every day, as well as freight haulers traveling farther north or south on the freeway. 

The bridge is owned by the railroad and is important to the movement of freight. It is more than 80 years old, pre-dating the conversion of the original two-lane US-23 into a freeway. Chynoweth explains why the jurisdiction for railroad bridges is different than vehicle bridges that carry local roads over or under state-owned highways. 

As of the podcast recording on Thursday, Sept. 16, MDOT officials were waiting to open bids and award a contract for the emergency repairs necessary to make the bridge safe for vehicles to pass underneath.  

Chynoweth also talks about the importance of truck drivers planning their routes and obtaining permits for oversize loads. In Michigan, a permit is required for objects and/or vehicles at 13 feet, 6 inches or higher.

Michigan Bridge Height Poster

Transcript

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Jeff Cranson: Hello. This is the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast. I'm Jeff Cranson, director of communications at the Michigan Department of Transportation.

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Cranson: This week, for the first time, we'll be featuring a guest who was on the podcast just last week, Matt Chynoweth, who is the director of the Bureau of Bridges and Structures at MDOT, will join us to talk about emergency repairs necessary to a railroad bridge on US-23 that was hit by a truck hauling oversized construction equipment toward the end of August. Only last week, and we're recording on Thursday the 16 of September, only last week did we learn that the bridge was in peril and the freeway needed to be closed for these emergency repairs, so Matt will join to talk about that.

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Cranson: So, Matt, this is unprecedented that I’m having the same guest two weeks in a row on the podcast, but we're in a bit of an unusual circumstance with the necessity to close the US-23 bridge where the railroad goes over US-23 near Milan. Could you just start out by explaining how this all came to be, kind of the sequence of events?

Matt Chynoweth: Sure, Jeff, yeah, thank you for having me. So, we had a high load hit on that particular bridge back August 20 time frame. At that time, there was some fairly significant damage done to the beam, one of the beams, and at that time, this bridge—I guess I’ll back up—the bridge is not owned or maintained by MDOT. This bridge was built in a 1949-time frame to go underneath the railroad which had been there for 50 or 60 years prior to that.

Cranson: And just to explain that, when you said this is not owned by MDOT that in itself is highly unusual because even the bridges that carry local roads over freeways, state-owned roads, the local roads, you know, lead up to the bridges, the approaches on both sides, but MDOT owns all of those bridges, right?

Chynoweth: Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, typically when it's a vehicle crossing MDOT will own, you know, the bridge over the freeway. It gets much more complicated when it comes to the rail bridges because typically the theme is they were here before the roadway or before the freeway, so MDOT is there based on an agreement with them, and part of those agreements has to do with maintenance responsibilities. So, throughout the state, we have all forms of maintenance agreements with the railroads, whether MDOT’s responsible or the railroad is responsible. For this particular bridge, the railroad is responsible for the superstructure, which is anything above the abutments. However, because a vehicle traveling on US-23 struck the bridge, MDOT is responsible for the repairs, so typically what ends up happening is we notify the railroad right away. The railroad engineers and staff were out on site. They decided to remove a portion of the damaged bottom flange because by this time it was, you know, hanging into traffic, and in doing so they removed a significant portion—about 28 inches. So, we were moving through our normal MDOT emergency repair process when we were notified by the railroad that they had concerns about the capacity, the residual capacity, of the bridge and that they were going to reduce train speeds going across it. At that time, since MDOT, you know, got official warning of a concern of capacity, we immediately decided to close US-23 and perform further investigation. We did not want to chance anything. Once we were on notice that there was an issue, we closed 23. Later that evening, so this all happened last Friday, that would have been September 10, we received calculations from the railroad which showed, basically, some capacity issues that MDOT would never find acceptable, so that further validated our decision to close the roadway below. There was never an attempt by MDOT to say that, you know, the railroad cannot run trains across the bridge because we have no authority. It's not our jurisdiction. So, this whole thing was predicated on the fact that we received information from the railroad about their concern with capacity. We immediately closed the roadway below. We needed state police and we needed MDOT crews from all over to come in and help. We understand and we know that it was very chaotic in trying to close a major freeway. Then we are following up with emergency projects, both to maintain traffic through the trunk line detour routes. We're going to be taking bids today, Thursday the 16, for the emergency repairs to the beam itself.

Cranson: What's your best hope that could come out of the bids and the contract when it's awarded for these emergency repairs?

Chynoweth: In terms of time?

Cranson: Yeah.

Chynoweth: Yeah, I mean my best hope right now is that we will be able to reopen US-23 maybe by the end of next week or next weekend, so we're still seven plus days out.

Cranson: Seven plus days as of September 16. So, going back to that first point in that history, you know, railroads in this country have historic roles, obviously, in the movement of commerce and predate roads and freeways and trucks and all the things that most of us use to get around. I think a lot of people are just confused about that and think, “Well, you know, it goes over your road and you’re state government, so why can't you tell the railroad to stop?”

Chynoweth: Yeah, and I often wonder why we don't have that authority either, but the fact remains that we do not. There are state and federal statutes that give the railroad operators that autonomy, and the state transportation agency has to work with them in terms of all of these agreements that we have in place. There is no time where a state transportation agency can force a railroad to adjust their operations. It just does not happen. The railroads do work with us when we have construction projects to time their traffic, or we restrict our construction operations to, you know, accommodate their traffic. In this situation here, this emergency situation, again, even though the railroad has made the decision to continue running traffic across the bridge, they have been excellent to work with relative to accelerating and expediting their processes for contractor rights of entry and the notices and approval of the repair plans that MDOT developed, so they’re very good to work with.

Cranson: And the access that workers are going to need to repair the bridge, basically.

Chynoweth: Correct, yeah. Again, this is an MDOT contract to repair a bridge that is owned and operated by the railroad, so they have authority to approve or deny anything.

Cranson: Stay with us. We'll have more on the other side of this important message.

Narrator: Did you know that most work zone crashes are caused by inattentive motorists? It only takes a split second of distraction to dramatically change lives forever. The Michigan Department of Transportation reminds you to slow down, follow all signs, and pay attention when driving through work zones because all employees deserve a safe place to work. Work zone safety: we're all in this together.

Cranson: So, anybody that lives in that area or has traveled between, you know, Toledo and Ann Arbor knows that bridge. You said it was built in 49, and we know that US-23 as a freeway was not there then. So, when the road was expanded to four lanes and made into a freeway, it somewhat had to be retrofitted to fit under that bridge. I think you told me that bridge is about 110 feet wide. How would that bridge be built today?

Chynoweth: Yeah, for those familiar with that section of US-23, they'll know that the shoulders become very narrow through there. It's almost a tunnel effect as you go underneath that bridge. So, to fully accommodate, you know, the footprint of US-23, and I don't know what the total right-of-way width is for US-23 north or south of that bridge, but a modern bridge over US-23 would more than likely be some sort of two-span bridge with a median pier between northbound and southbound. That's a very long single span bridge, and that's part of the reason that MDOT closed the roadway. It's one span over both bounds, and this is a bridge that we call a non-redundant bridge, meaning there are only two main beams, and it does not have the capacity to distribute load if one of those beams is compromised.

Cranson: So, just a belt, no suspenders?

Chynoweth: That's correct.

Cranson: And when you talk about it would be built now differently, what you're saying is you would put a bridge pier, or an abutment, in the median and really kind of distribute that weight differently?

Chynoweth: Yes, so we would most likely have a two-span bridge or a multi-span bridge, and then there would be multiple main beams. The bridge that's there now, again, it's two main beams with cross beams in between them. We call them transverse floor beams. We would most likely—a modern redundant bridge has several beam lines, and there's redundancy with the, you know, deck plate that the rail would sit on and all of that, so a modern bridge would not look like the bridge that is there today.

Cranson: So, before we wrap up, let's touch on what got us here in the first place, and that was yet another high load hit, you know, a truck hauling equipment not cognizant of the clearances. We've had numbers of these the last few years across the country and many in Michigan. Bridges have really suffered because of it. We even went so far as to rebuild one that probably didn't need to be rebuilt right away just to make it higher because there were so many on 131 south of Grand Rapids. Do you have any personal theory on why there have been so many of these? I know some of the discussion is about the shortage of truck drivers and training and the need for qualified drivers. Is there anything else going on do you think?

Chynoweth: So, yeah, I definitely agree with that, Jeff. I think that the trucking industry, just like all industries right now, is suffering from experienced folks leaving the workforce, right? And then we're struggling to keep up with, you know, to backfill that. I also think another major issue is just not knowing, you know, what the laws are, and the fact that, you know, in Michigan if you have a truck that's got a load that is over 13 feet six inches it requires a permit. That's in Michigan statute, and we run it through our permitting system which plans a route knowing that you've got bridges over a certain height. So, it's all around just experience of the workforce and not knowing this. And I hate to speculate, but sometimes you just have somebody who says, “I’m just going to do it.” Now, this particular operator was hauling a major piece of construction equipment, so I would assume through their processes and insurance requirements they would understand what's required, but they hit the bridge anyway.

Cranson: And people make mistakes.

Chynoweth: And people make mistakes. That's very true.

Cranson: Yeah, so the, you know, our Attorney General's Office and insurance companies will be sorting that out and ultimately figuring out, you know, how much the insurance company pays for this, but in the short term, you and your folks are working with the railroad and doing everything we can to get the freeway reopened, so we'll just hope for the best.

Chynoweth: Yeah, and we fully understand and appreciate what this has done relative to taking a freeway and detouring it and folks using the local system. We understand that frustration, and that's why we're working—we work through the weekend to get some of these contracts out. We've been working non-stop to get the repairs, you know, contracted out, so we're moving very quickly to get it resolved.

Cranson: Yeah, I think it's safe to say that we're very cognizant of the major inconvenience, both for commuters, people who live in that area, certainly even, you know, for commerce and for trucks that go back and forth on that stretch of road to points much farther south or north. We know what it means for everybody. Well, thanks, Matt. This is helpful. Good luck going forward.

Chynoweth: Great. Thanks for having me, Jeff.

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Cranson: Thank you again for listening to this week's edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast. I would like to thank Randy Debler and Corey Petee for engineering this week's podcast. To subscribe to show notes and more, go to Apple podcasts and search for Talking Michigan Transportation.